The War Bard
by Vaccinium Oxycoccos
Summary: Cranberry finds herself cast into an unfamiliar world, in the midst of a battle between Toa, Dark Hunters, and the Brotherhood of Makuta. Will she join the heroes, aid the villains, work for profit, or strike out on her own? Will she even survive, or die a perilous death? Future uncertain, Cranberry must fight and find the true power hidden within herself.
1. A New World

The world was still and silent. There was no breeze blowing through the trees. No far distant sounds of cars driving down the road. Not even the panicked breathing of the girl in front of her or the one behind her. Everything was still, even herself. She would move her eyes, but she didn't. They were still fixated on the instrument of her death, a small red hole in the center of her body. It had already begun to grow, tearing her apart. She could feel the shocking pain coursing through her. If allowed to increase its size any farther, it would surely kill her. Whatever the reason, it had stopped, and the whole world seemingly with it.

 _"I hope you're ready for what is to come."_

Cranberry looked up at the girl in front of her. No... it couldn't be her speaking. The voice was masculine; deep and old. "Who's there?"

 _"I am your creator."_

That didn't sound right, accurate, or believable. That this being had even stated such an implausible claim told her that he could not be reasoned with. She let out a small laugh. "Creator or not, I am clearly at your mercy. So tell me then, what is to come?"

 _"I've recently taken to these experiments. You're going to be my next test subject."_

That didn't sound good. "What kind of experiment?"

 _"You are going to be reborn into a new world. One where you, a godless murderer, must learn to put your faith in me in order to survive."_

That sounded even worse. "Now, wait just a second!"

 _"You have had quite enough seconds. It is done."_

The next instant, Cranberry felt a strange sensation like a red hot pop, and everything was black.

* * *

Cranberry's senses slowly came back to her.

That didn't seem right. Dead people can't feel the damp cold stone underneath them. Dead people can't smell the stale air. They can't hear the slow lapping of some liquid not quite as fluid as water against the side of a rock pool. They certainly can't open their eyes and look up to see the ceiling of a dark cave. It felt, smelled, sounded, and looked to her that all this was happening, so Cranberry knew she must not have been dead. The question was how.

Everything felt hazy on top of it being very dark, like a smokey green fog dancing at the corners of her vision. She could barely see as it was, but she had no difficulty getting up. The air was thick, and it felt almost like she had to swim over to the edge of the pool. She looked down into the dark silvery liquid, expecting to faintly see her reflection in the darkness. The silver surface only showed black, gray, and a very slight hint of dark green. She took that as her own reflection, considering the conditions, and began to look for a way out of the cave.

It didn't take long to find a way out. A tunnel that led her up, hopefully towards the surface. The silvery pool's dark reflection wasn't enough for her. She wanted to see herself as she remembered she looked. To look in clear blue water and see her sunlit reflection. Only after she had done that would she look to see where she was. To figure out what to do next. And as she saw the sunlight at the end of the tunnel, she saw the green haze fade from the edges of her sight. Her skin crawled and she reached out into the light for the first time in this new place.

Cranberry stood on an untouched sandy beach littered with stones small and large, at the mouth of a cave, the sea breeze blowing through her hair and clothes. She took a deep breath, feeling the salty air enter her lungs. This place was grand, for sure more than she had expected. She looked up at the bright sun, shielding her eyes from the light now beating down on her. No... there were two suns.

"It's too bright."

She had just come out of a cave. It made sense that the light was hurting her eyes more than usual. She decided the best course of action was not to look directly at the source of the light. Looking out across the sea, she couldn't spot any other landmasses on the distant horizon, so she would have to search the one she was on in order to find a way to survive. Turning away from the sea, Cranberry suddenly started to feel faint. She shook it off, pushing past it and making her way inland.

Luckily, the island wasn't as barren as the beach. It was large enough that she couldn't see all of it, but not so much that she couldn't see the water on the horizon across the island. She'd easily be able to trek across the island in one day. There would be no real point to it though, and she could see other things of more interest. Most of the island looked to be open plains, except for the far side which was covered in the thick green of a forest, and on the point farthest to her left there looked to be a fortress. There was movement at the stone structure, but it was too far away to tell what she was seeing. It was probably not a good idea to stroll up to a fortress in an unfamiliar world, but if she could get close enough to see what was happening...

Cranberry looked down at the fortress. She could see the layout now, below her as she began to fall. The open courtyard, the walls and turrets, the two towers on the seaward walls, people moving around on the walls sending blasts of different-colored energy back and forth, and a veritable horde at the gates, climbing the walls, the sinister sound of a thousand serpents hissing reaching her ears from below. And she was falling into the middle of it all. What an improper way to die.

* * *

Today was a bad day.

Gelish was used to fighting enemies who had a sense of self-preservation. She hated Rahkshi because they charged with very little care for their own safety. It made it hard to drive them away without having to destroy every single one. They had been expecting the Dark Hunters that were camped out in the forest to make a move today, not knowing that the Brotherhood of Makuta also had their eye on the fortress of Talaki. They shouldn't have been surprised, shouldn't have been caught off guard, but they were. She was ashamed to admit they had been caught with their masks off. Now they were paying for it.

A trio of maroon-colored Rahkshi climbed over the wall next to her. She would have fought them, but the last thing she needed right now was for her team to be fighting with a dozing leader. She turned and leaped down off the wall, opening her wings and gliding down the rest of the way, putting further distance between her and the enemy. Turning and landing on her back, she lifted her Kanoka launcher and aimed for the top of the wall where the three serpents had breached the defenses, firing before she even had time to aim properly.

Gelish was able to focus better after firing the disc, and as it was still in the air she could guide it, adjusting its trajectory so that it wouldn't simply fly into the sky. It struck the lead Rahkshi, exploding in bright orange flames and throwing its target off the wall. The other two were knocked back as well, but managed to stay on the wall. Thankfully, her attack had drawn her allies' attention to the breach and two more of her team targeted them from the top of the tower, blowing one apart with a Cordak blaster and melting through the other with a Rhotuka spinner.

Breathing a breath of relief, Gelish took a couple seconds to rest on her back and stare up at the sky.

There was a distant flash of light far above them, and then she could see something up there, a small speck in the bright blue. A person, falling towards them. That wasn't a good thing, either for the defenders of Talaki or for the unfortunate soul with the ground rapidly approaching. Getting up, it occurred to her that some of the Rahkshi could teleport themselves or their victims. It could be one of her team, or of the other teams defending the fortress.

"Valkyries, is anyone missing?"

There was a brief delay, probably while her team counted. Then the answer came, shouted from the top of the tower. "All Toa defenders accounted for! The Rahkshi are making a surge on the North wall!"

Gelish looked along the walls for one of her fellow team leaders. Her eye caught on the jet black armor of a Toa of Earth. "Grad! Reinforce the North wall!" The older Toa nodded to her, then rushed around the wall while shouting out orders to his team.

Looking back up, Gelish saw the mysterious newcomer was still falling. If it wasn't a Toa that had been teleported by one of the Rahkshi, then it could have been a Rahkshi itself, or one of the Dark Hunters getting a little too adventurous. There were many other possibilities, but all of them had the same answer. She had to meet it before it reached the ground. Wings spread, Gelish took to the air and flew up to meet whatever it was.

The two collided in the air, Gelish catching Cranberry into her waiting arms.

Gelish looked over the strange being in her arms, trying to determine if it was some sort of Makuta trick. Cranberry, for her part, had passed out. Gelish read the lettering that came up on her mask's heads-up, soaking in everything she could about this creature. Her Mask of Knowledge only reached so far, but it was sufficient for her to get the idea of what she was holding. It was like her, like Most beings, only its armor was nothing more than a thin cloth. Woefully inadequate, but it was a living being. She had sworn an oath to protect life. Gelish turned and dived back into the courtyard, pulling up and landing softly next to the door to the tower. She kicked open the door, walked inside, and placed Cranberry on the floor inside.

"We'll find out where you come from later."

The moment she was out of the tower, closing the door behind her, Cranberry's eyes shot open. The shock of falling had caused her to pass out, a lethal mistake, but now she was alive and on a solid floor. How had she gotten... here? Pushing herself up to her feet, Cranberry spotted the door and shoved it open, which was easy despite its size and weight. Outside, she found herself in the courtyard of the fortress, and there was battle raging around her. Lightning, fire, ice and lasers, mixed with countless other projectiles filled the air. She could see the defenders on the wall, tall armored beings, sheer titans running around in a panic as they fought an enemy she couldn't see.

Cranberry was on top of the wall. This had to stop. But now that she was there, she might as well look around. She peered over the edge of the wall to see what was outside, and her breath was stolen away. A Rahkshi, orange and black armor like some Halloween nightmare, crawled over the wall in front of her. It glared at her, then turned away. Suddenly she could breathe again. She saw it moving towards several of the defenders, stalking towards them like a tiger hunting its prey.

"There's one over here! It's on the wall!"


	2. The Beginning Of A New Adventure

That was a very loud warning.

Gelish looked over to where someone was shouting about a breach in the defense. She didn't immediately spot who had shouted, but she did see the orange and black Rahkshi. No one else was going to make it in time. She dropped her disc launcher and ran towards the wall. The launcher would have weighed her down, slowing her down, something she couldn't allow right this moment. She leaped up at the side of the wall, grabbing onto the ramparts and pulling herself up right in front of the vacuum-powered machine serpent, her claw gauntlet held in front of her.

"Get out of my fortress, beast!"

It hissed, as Rahkshi are want to do. She didn't agree with its conclusion, however, and rolled under it's staff as it swiped at her, bringing her claws up into its midsection. Pulling her claws out, she nearly ripped the thing in half. Rahkshi are resilient, however, and it brought its staff up to stab down at her. Twisting to the side, she narrowly avoided being speared. She grabbed the staff and rolled, ripping it out of her foe's hands and throwing it off the wall before rolling back onto her feet behind the Rahkshi. It turned, now growling, which was less normal, and dripping fluids from its severely damaged body.

Now was a good time for Coras, a Toa of Plasma from one of the other teams, to show up and cleave the Rahkshi in half with his broadsword. Why him specifically doing that specifically? Because that's who it was and that's what he did. He then scooped up the remains and tossed them over the edge into the horde below. Coras looked back to Gelish. "Do I have to clean up all your messes?"

Shaking her head, Gelish was about to offer a retort but something caught her eye. She turned to look behind her and saw... the creature she'd caught falling through the sky. It was awake now. That didn't take long. It was also clearly quite wary of her. She quickly waved Coras off. "Cover for me a moment. I need to deal with this." She faced the creature straight on. She held her hands up, showing that she wasn't holding anything now. "I'm not going to hurt you, it's okay. Can you understand me?"

Cranberry was... far far out of her element. This was so weird. She could understand them just fine, but that aside she didn't know what to make of all the big biomechanical people who could probably liquefy her on accident with a head pat. It was pretty obvious they were highly skilled in combat and much stronger than her. This would, at this point at least, be a terrible fight to pick. She slowly nodded. "I understand you."

Well that made a lot of things simpler. Gelish let out a sigh of relief, just as several blasts of plasma energy hit the wall next to them. The heat energy scorched and burned the stone, and her armor, but she managed to shield herself mostly with her gauntlet. When she looked up, however, the other had shielded her face with her arms as well, but to much less success. Cranberry was now covered in dark burns that smoked and smoldered. Gelish gasped in shock. No sentient being she knew of would take damage that severe even from a direct hit. But then, as she could clearly see, this one had no real armor to speak of.

Cranberry was in pain from the sudden deep, blackened and bleeding injuries that covered almost her entire body now. She dropped to her knees, partially from being unable to stand, but also to better keep out of the line of fire. Kneeling down didn't cause much more pain, as her legs had been mostly spared, but everything hurt all the same. Blackish green wisps of smoke coiled off of her, dissipating into the air. What a terrible way to start off life in a new world.

Gelish crouched down to avoid being targeted further. She reached out a hand, but stopped just short. Burns were extremely painful, so she was careful not to actually touch the scorched flesh a mere inch from her fingertips. "Mata Nui... are you okay?"

Was she okay? Cranberry shook her head, trying to clear out some of the fog of pain. She needed to answer. As painful as this was, it wasn't permanent. "It... it'll heal..." She managed to gasp out what she could, but she new it wouldn't last forever. She just needed to-

"I see. You're quite the resilient creature, aren't you?"

Surprised at this comment, Cranberry realized she could feel a tingling sensation all over her body. She looked down at her hands to see her skin beginning to mend. Bit by bit, the burns faded and the pain went away. It wasn't supposed to heal _that_ quickly. She turned her hands over, inspecting both sides. She could feel this process happening all over. "How interesting..."

She knew she could have healed from that damage, but it would have taken a lot of time and rest, even as a Magical Girl. But it seemed now that her healing powers had been boosted. That of course made her wonder about her other powers. She was starting to wonder about all that warping about now too. Was that... her power? Time to find out. Instead of jumping up onto the battlements, which would have been easy enough for her, she simply imagined that she was standing up there. Sure enough, an instant later, she was standing atop the battlements, looking down over the battlefield before her. Hundreds of creatures just like the one before were swarming around the walls of the fortress, firing who-knows-what at the defenders. Now it was time to test her other power.

She started with simple theatrics, as one must do when performing a large attack. Bending one knee and crossing one leg across the other, she brought her hand up to her face in something approximating her signature pose, though she reached out with her other hand, pointing towards the center of the army below her. She didn't have a word for the attack. She just visualized it. A burst of sound so tremendous it would send them all flying. So immense it would disintegrate all those at the center of the blast.

It hit like an instant hurricane coming to life in the middle of the mass of Rahkshi. Dozens of them were turned to dust and blown away, and hundreds more pummeled and battered and sent tumbling through the air. They landed quite some ways away, peppering the ground and throwing up another dust cloud, though not as impressive as the one at the base of the wall. There were still plenty that hadn't been utterly destroyed by the attack, but they saw the devastation of the single attack and began to retreat.

Cranberry turned back from the battlefield, feeling like she'd more than done her part. She dropped down off the battlements and looked over to a shocked and bewildered Gelish. "I presume you do not have a problem with my actions." She began dusting off her clothes.

Gelish shook her head. "No, it's... thank you."

Cranberry had already turned away, fiddling with her sleeve. It was fine, there was nothing wrong with it. That was the problem. Her clothes, she now realized, had healed with the rest of her. That wasn't how healing worked, last she checked. She thought through the possibilities, why it might be her clothes were repairing with her body. Even if she had the power to do that, it shouldn't have happened accidentally. Even looking back on her accidental teleporting, she had been focusing on the place she teleported to. She hadn't thought about her clothes at all, just the process of healing her body. Which meant either a third party was involved in the mending of her clothes, or she was indeed doing it herself. If the former, there was nothing to do about it right now and it ultimately didn't matter until she found out who and why. If it was her, then that would have to mean that it was part of her.

That didn't make sense, but she couldn't think of anything that made _more_ sense.

She kept it to herself for now. She didn't know how much that might mean to these... others. Perhaps she needed to find out more about them. Cranberry turned to Gelish. "Excuse me. Is it possible you could tell me more about where I am and who, and what, you are?"

The Toa of Water nodded. "Of course, though I'll have to ask you return that kindness. I've never seen anything quite like you, so..." She shrugged, then motioned for Cranberry to follow her. "Better we talk with the other team leaders."

* * *

Coras was a tall red and orange-armored Toa wielding a broadsword and a Kanohi Rital, which supposedly helped him make the right decision in any scenario, but Gelish had never seen compelling evidence of this working. He was standing near the door of the room the Toa were using as their command center. His second, Zade, a Toa of Sonics with a bulky set of silver armor over his normal armor, a huge spear strapped to his back, and a mask that allowed him to increase or decrease the amount of friction on any surface. Zade was sitting down, unlike his team leader, because he didn't see why he had to be standing for something he didn't really care to be involved in anyway.

There were a few other Toa present, though they were either less interested or less of a concern. Tali was a Toa of Plant Life, the tallest in the group, and was still holding tight to her plasma cannon and Cordak Blaster like she expected another attack at any moment. Her focus was elsewhere. Grad was the oldest Toa at the fortress, a Toa of Earth, and was paying close attention. He didn't seem like he was eager to cause trouble. Finally, there was Krusk, a rather top heavy-looking Toa of Ice. He was hard to read and had not spoken since the meeting had started.

Cranberry had explained to them as much as she felt comfortable sharing right now, and in return she'd learned their names and their powers. At least, to the extent they decided to share, on an individual level. That was fine for now. She didn't want to press, and possibly irk, the armored titans. They'd also given her a basic outline of what a Toa was. Something that Matoran sometimes turned into. Toa had powers and weapons and were the guardians of the peace, protectors of the Matoran. Made sense, though she had no idea what a Matoran was. She envisioned basically smaller Toa. Like children.

Her story was a lot harder for them to swallow than theirs was for her. Namely because she could see just about all the evidence she needed for their story, and had none to show them in return. It was some kind of refreshing at least that they had more difficulty with the idea that there was an entire race of billions of people who didn't have armor naturally fused to their muscle tissue than they did with her description of Magical Girls. It really didn't sound all that different from how they described Toa, now that she thought about it. So at least there was that.

Now, as for the monsters they were fighting. "They're called Rahkshi." Gelish sighed. "They are servants of the Makuta. There are armies of thousands of them. There aren't nearly that many Toa in the universe, so you can imagine how much difficulty we have dealing with them." The Toa couldn't afford losses fighting an enemy that outnumbered them so badly. "Not to mention the Dark Hunters camped out in the forest."

Dark Hunters? "Who are they?" With an over-the-top name like that, it couldn't be good. Cranberry was internally sighing at the thought of so many enemies. Had she picked the right side of this conflict? Actually... she thought it over for a moment, quickly realizing that she hadn't actually picked a side. She'd just blasted an army that had already attacked her. Granted, no one else was liable to see it that way, so peace with the Makuta now seemed highly unlikely, but siding with the Dark Hunters was not outside the realm of possibility.

"The Dark Hunters are brutes." It was Coras who answered her, his gruff voice conveying the message that he wasn't happy about anything right now. "If one of them finds you, they'll most likely squish first and ask questions never. They might even eat you, if they happen to have a mouth."

That made them sound violent. Cranberry thought, if allying with the Dark Hunters was an unlikely occurrence, then they certainly would fit the bill for her favorite kinds of people. That is, good opponents to fight. She could only imagine, if the Toa gave her such a colorful warning about them, what they were actually like. Larger, for one, than the Toa or Rahkshi, most likely. Aggressive, obviously, from the description. Hopefully intelligent, but no matter if they weren't. She wanted to look into these Dark Hunters, to see how good a fight she could get from them, but there was still the Toa to worry about. It hadn't escaped her that Coras' explanation was meant to ward her off of trying to join them. Truth or not, he didn't want someone with the power she'd demonstrated even thinking about siding with these Dark Hunters.

Gelish interrupted her thoughts. "Regardless, you will need some actual armor if you intend to be anywhere near the Rahkshi or the Dark Hunters. Your healing abilities are quite amazing, but I'm sure they have a limit. And if you ever want to go near civilization, a mask would be in order too. Maybe you like your face, but there's a lot of people who would be freaked out by it."

Cranberry was never one for armor, but the Toa was probably right. She was strong, but she didn't know how much weight she could walk around in all the time. The thought of getting hit in the face with another fire ball was a more compelling argument. Cranberries weren't meant for toasting. "Where do you keep your spare armor?"


End file.
